demand equality. the world was of war to defeat fascism. black men and women are risking their lives and dangerous war-torn countries. some gave their life for a country that denied the basic rights. what better time to demand an end to racism. double victory signifies the struggle of african-americans who were fighting for victory over fascism and for victory over discrimination at home during the war years. of the term also took on meeting for african-american women who fought for victory over sexism and racism. over the past 70 years reworked to recognize the heroes of world war ii, their stories of careers and sacrifice of been told and preserve for future generations. many of the contributions of african-american women who brokerage repaired barriers and ordered to serve their country have not been celebrated. my hope in writing about the experiences is that more of

their stories will be uncovered, remembered, and appreciated. fewer and fewer of the greatest generation remain. throughout their life many of the stories have triumphed over the challenge is african-american women faced. many of their accounts of victory over racism or ignored. it is up to the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren to recover the stories of the women have survived. it is their responsibility to ensure that these victorious women are up from. it will be a double victory. [applause] >> thank you very much. >> historical women has always

been kind of facing sexes and with the movements such as the civil rights movement and labor movement and scholars like and elise, centered on the female exclusion in a labor movement. deborah grey white writes about the exclusion of women from civil rights. and during the second or more did any women experienced sexism from within the movement? was this a deviation from the pattern of excluding women from the civil rights movement which was practiced by not all leaders , but some? for some measure of understanding what your question is. >> a okay. let me try and rephrase it. women have sometimes were excluded from the civil rights movement and from other minority movements that involved both men and women. women have experienced sexism. was that the case for a world

war ii specifically? >> yes, i did find things, especially in the march on washington movement, some examples of that, absolutely. >> can you remember them specifically? >> sometimes the women mentioned were denigrated. by some of the men in the group. yes. >> thank you. >> anyone else? no? okay. thanks very much. [applause] >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here on line. step the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can also share any thing you see on booktv.org deasy by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and select in the format. book tv strays lima -- streams

live on line for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> and now on book tv command to let it talks about the power of hezbollah in lebanon and the a organization's activities beyond the nation's borders. this is about an hour-and-a-half. [applause] >> thank you. it is amazing to be here. september 3rd was that they way in the future for a long, long time that maybe might come and the book might come out, and here we are. want to thank you for hosting and thank you all for coming. often when i speak aerostar by apologizing for the long introduction when 1 mile. he could have dispensed with the long bio. the website on -- the buyer on my website is intended for my mother and she's not here, but she is to today. so thank you for reading the full buyout. [applause] >> there are a bunch of people

in need dates that i would get to later but i want to say from the outset, it is fantastic my parents there, my wife is here, one of my boys is here wearing his favorite time. you look very good, judge of. thank you for coming. with hezbollah fighting alongside the assad regime in syria and the people wondering how hezbollah could be involved in a strike, that u.s. designation of the hezbollah military wing as a terrorist group in the european union. there is plenty to talk about hezbollah for the year now. for the sake of context, let's start at the beginning. one reason i wrote this book is because of the lack of context that has been out there. so little publicly available in any credible fashion about the history of the covert activities of hezbollah, its activities outside of london on. if you looked at the literature before i started into this,

there is a lot of good stuff on hezbollah. lots of good literature on hezbollah, and almost all of it is about hezbollah as a political actor in lebanon, and it is, or about hezbollah as a social well flow provider, and it is. or about the militia activities in lebanon targeting israel, crossing the blue line, and of course it is that to. but hezbollah is also a global terrorist group and increasingly over the years it has developed into an international organized criminals to have criminal syndicate. if you really want to understand what hezbollah is all about, you have to understand that, and that was missing from the literature. in fact sectarian communities, and all

of these different things can sometimes pull so that you find that hezbollah is sometimes operating along multiple identities to multiple strands that sometimes are mutually exclusive. consider, for example, as i am sure we will during the q and make a mountain lion might be that hezbollah, which was already under so much pressure in lebanon, already under pressure because two of its senior people and to other nasa senior people were indicted for the assassination by a special tribunal for lebanon in the hague. how hezbollah could decide in its darkest that it would be a wise move to side with a run on behalf of the assad regime which was butchering its own people, a group that as described itself as a resistance against israeli occupation suddenly fighting the south but east, not israelis, the syrians, not jews, but fellow muslims. this actually has real implications not only for the

public discourse, but also for this course i find within government circles. back when i was still at the tail and definition a book on how maus i was invited to a u.s. government conference and on lebanon and hezbollah. it was co-sponsored by two different parts of the u.s. government, and each panel was chaired by someone from the u.s. government. and then almost every panel there was at least someone brought in from lebanon but someone is that something like, i know you americans and israelis say hezbollah is in all these terrible terrorist attacks abroad, oil was not true. we all know it's al qaeda. and i was not surprised that someone might say that but i was surprised the moderator's did not challenge the statement. that's your perspective, but here's another. i know you believe there was some guy out there who supposedly is the arch terrorist

for hezbollah, but i went and got an audience with he himself from the secretary-general of the party of god himself and asked him. he assures me that he does not -- or not a very nice person. so when mcneil is an assessment that indonesia out to this person which was very sustained. it's a said, and now were both right. it did exist. and now he doesn't, but i did not send it. but now that we are on c-span that person knows that eroded. and so after this conference i started talking to people, not just lebanese or israelis or americans, canadians or press, but chileans and romanians and singaporeans and filipinos and kuwaitis. over the course of nine years conducted research that eventually became this book. if we're going to start at the beginning, we are starting 30 years ago.

thirty years ago next month with the bombings in beirut, the bombings of a u.s. marine barracks. in fact, it was over 18 months that hezbollah carried out a series of attacks targeting western interest first and lebanon and later western interest in the region. first in europe and then additionally in the western hemisphere and south america. the israeli embassy. when it comes to the beirut bombings much of what was relevant and is relevant now. succeeded as the head of hezbollah islamic organization, the international strike went battle plan to the bombings, but watched the bombing and fold from a nearby rooftop and then as pressure built up in lebanon, they fled to assad. it was there according to new

zealand officials that i spoke to that they helped formalize and found his homage reorganization to the covert operation wing of hezbollah which is self, and a variety of militant lebanese groups are coalescing of the time in the 1980's. we now know only in retrospect that the united states edges of the communication of september september 261983 reached before the bombing. from the iranian military and intelligence to the iranian ambassador in damascus to our ambassador to contact a senior militants tied to hezbollah from a later one of the leaders of hezbollah and to direct and said take spectacular action against the u.s. marines. if there was ever a 24 karat gold document, this was a.

carry-on attack targeting u.s. marines, but information did not make a switch to the bureaucracy until october 25, 2 days after the bombing. fast forward by -- to today, reporting that german intelligence was intercepted a call between senior hezbollah officials and an iranian official talking about how assad was behind last month's chemical weapons attack. he would never let me get away with the title like this. wild wild west beirut. are listed department was writing about what it described as spillover of the middle eastern terrorist activities and to europe by hezbollah and other terrorist groups, you had kidnappings, hijackings, activities throughout the region . in turn had led to the series of

hezbollah attacks around the world to secure their release. again, fast forward. many of the same groups, hezbollah as lama is your organization hamas even some of the exact same people would team up in 25 years later. danger of began to pick up pace in europe. muhammed ali, one of the key hijackers and was wanted for the twa a 47 hijacking was later arrested. operatives elsewhere in europe and in particular paris. the series of bombings that practically brought paris to a standstill his compatriot was living to the 1988 hijacking of

kuwaiti air flight 42 from bangkok and then you have other operations in europe, one, for example, involves a 1989 german intelligence intercepting communications. could not quite figure out what he was talking about lots of references to buy bmws, mercedes , different types of cars. eventually they get a court ordered the raid about his code book. bmws were referencing israeli air jewish targets, mercedes as american targets. he was arrested, served his time, and eventually deported, but that was up the end. the terms of several years later in the western hemisphere during things in south america and they're is a case involving here in washington. it is amazing story. it is really fantastic. the ties to the united states that come up time and time again

now well into chapters of the book that discuss the united states, but throughout. a very many people are aware of the bombings sometimes they call directly from payphones to hezbollah headquarters. sometimes they used what they thought was a secure cut out at the iranian embassy which the argentinian said penetrated, and sometimes whether calls routed said the ban on through hezbollah sympathizers or supporters in new york. perhaps you knew sense designated by treasury, and i want to thank treasury colleagues who are your today taking a chance to be with us, there were designated by treasury. perot was aware of that. you may not be a red cell that designation he was making regular trips to miami, florida with a long-term u.s. visa and his passport.

i'd stumbled across some absolutely amazing reports. cold words to of false documents to counter currency. hapless assignments, the story has it all and unbelievably it's true. a real scene where the hijacked crew of twa for seven is bouncing back and forth across the middle east and land in algiers. they demand that plan b deplaned. the producer credit card and pay for the five to $6,000 worth of gas. they tried to do it again when they came back. they just flat refused. just weeks before, a successful bombing of the army jewish community center, this fellow came this close to blowing up

the israeli embassy in bangkok, a long operation that had been carefully and meticulously planned and plotted over time and was thwarted it was not intelligence. it was locked. it was simply the fact that the driver of the explosive laden truck got into a fender bender with one of those taxes in downtown thailand the middle of rush hour and fled the scene. there was until they opened the chart after the toyota tell lot not knowing it was filled with poland explosives and opened the doors and were overcome by the stench that they realize something was wrong. when they opened the bats there were secured to the inside. they found explosives. the driver had come with the truck. it appears that the hezbollah operators did not have a driver's licenses or realities. they found some mom-and-pop

rental agency would read the majority so long as they used their juror. the dead driver's body was found in the bottom. consider the hijacking of an airliner in africa, cello on three different airplanes he managed to well smuggle his explosives on the airplane. just gonna put is explosives and guns in a box of pastries. on the next friday stuck there into what i have to assume was a very smelly gym bag. on the last plane he ran out of creative opportunities and just bribe someone at the airport to it is explosives on a plan. i think my favorite is in the end of the southeast is a chapter the blue diamond affair. you might have heard about this instance where a worker employed

in the palace of a saudi prince and have access to a safe and reportedly stuffed a-shaped, egg-sized gems into the vacuum cleaner bag, left the palace, mail the gems to himself and fled the country. this led to a huge rupture in relations between the saudis and that ties for many years. at one point there was a brief press conference where they laid out what they said were most of the gems, but it turned out to be chock. the saudis some people to investigate the case themselves. this happens to be in a time when lebanese hezbollah and saudi hezbollah together or on a tear assassinating diplomats around the world. there is no evidence they knew that the three people that there were about that assessment in thailand were in fact saudi intelligence officers and to investigate the missing blue diamond which if it exists apparently is larger than up diamond and other gems, but they did. the best part of the -- and you cannot make the stuff of.

the local police officer, the thai police officer who was originally tasked to investigate the case one wrote, wanted the jim's for himself, and eventually found himself, because you murder someone, on death row where he became an elvis impersonator. you can make this stuff up. so much of the hezbollah history circles around and back in ground and back again. the chapter, we get into an interesting discussion about how a lebanese hezbollah recruited saudis, kuwaitis, bahrainis, lebanese, and others at the shrine in damascus and later house some of the final operational meetings chaired by the head of saudi hezbollah himself to a plan by the final stages of the call will towers bombing was held at a shrine, of course today at the center of hezbollah justification for its presence in syria which it claims in large part it is doing

just to protect ethnic lebanese and shrines. in fact, hezbollah has a long, long operational history with the shrine as well. if we move more recently we i was situation where perhaps because of sanctions on c-span2, perhaps because of the fall of the price of oil, hezbollah is moving out into criminal enterprises even more than it ever had before, and it has always been involved in criminal enterprises. now moving narcotics from shop america across the tenth parallel with law enforcement describes as highway ten to west africa and then laundering the proceeds of these drugs. in some cases back to the united states through used-car dealerships, back to africa, and then to 11 on. there are so many ways that the connections come back home. as i mentioned, february 2008, there was an assassination. at the time both hezbollah and

iran believed that the syrians had assassinated in. that is a long story and we get into in the book. right after he announces, fine, this hour you wanted to, that it be open war. it was a very long before there was a first of a series of hezbollah operations aimed specifically at avenging the death. this has to be as significant israeli personality, as senior current or former israeli official. this has nothing to do with assassinating taurus around the world. you will get to that amendment. the first plot, those individuals, to hezbollah operators were captured, tried, convicted. at the very same time that he was arrested, on trial and convicted for this plot, his brother who is known as

mr. lebanon. at the very epicenter of a massive criminal of rice here in the united states from the philadelphia area that started with knockoff goods and silence -- stolen cell phones. every case is a knockoff forestall when play stations. judge joe, that is why you have a week. from the stolen goods, weapons procurement. in baltimore became an extremely effective fbi sting operation sending to five cooperating witnesses and others to beirut. told in private about the sidelines, the arian satellites for its targeting of israeli cities, a collection they got on the nature and the number of

hours a day of the counterfeit machinery that produces counterfeit currency around the world. and that the very same time these two things are going on there were multiple plots. one was in turkey, one involved a kuwaiti and a canadian citizen. the circles around today because now we know that the bombing in bulgaria involved at least two dual nationals, one of lebanese australian koala lebanese canadian, and it comes back to the united states because we now know that the lebanese canadian involved in the plot, his father came upon a wiretaps' related to the hezbollah cigarette smuggling sele was investigated and convicted. it all comes together. hezbollah continues today to try to avenge the death, but there is something else going on, as i

mentioned. deeply involved in assassinating israeli tourists around the world. he himself told this reporter, that has nothing to do with him. you want to assassinate an israeli tourist you're there. we can do it any time. it has everything to do with the place and role of hezbollah with the rest of the iranian nuclear program. we get into this in some detail at the end of the book. that is an important and dramatic thing to pinpoint because as we try -- and i am sure that we will come to think about why hezbollah is doing what they're doing, there are two things that people need to realize. the u.s. intelligence community, the director of national intelligence, the director of the national tourism center said that u.s. intelligence committee assesses that the relationship as a strategic partnership. not because they find hezbollah

and hezbollah us to do what they said, not because they get the training. there is a deep ideological commitment. i think forgive me if i am remembering. one of the senior hezbollah official says that if you don't appreciate our severe commitment and you don't understand we are. i don't believe that everything, he says japanese say how high. you have to understand and appreciate this relationship. in the philadelphia area where a dual lebanese german citizen with an import export company called power expressed operating as slovakia. man pads, scholer paw fired missiles to take down f-16s.

very nonchalant about how he would get them to hezbollah. he finally tells the source, don't worry. we will market as spare parts to be sure, but there are no inspections. so i think another reason hezbollah is all in in syria is because it once katie to be staying in power. sure of that it must make sure that the areas remain in good hands. perhaps the scariest thing that we found so far was in some ways a successful bombing. six people were killed. many more injured. will we learn even more

intelligence and information, not intelligence, law enforcement, all open sores. you can find yourself. in the case of cyprus. arrested, tried, and ultimately convicted for its crimes there helping to up together an almost identical plot in cyprus to what happens a couple weeks later. the nothing about hezbollah, for said that the ibm hezbollah, but he did not know that they're reconnaissance was for. he knew something weird was going on. speculative for which to bring down a plan. but later he said, and i quote, it it was just collecting information about this use. this is what my organization is during of error in the world. by the way, this is all the time

when the european union is debating whether not to designate all or part of hezbollah as a terrorist group and here you are with an attack in bulgaria, attempted plot and cyprus. and we then find out that before hezbollah dispensed them to cyprus on multiple missions first to create an incredible cover story in the curia as reconnaissance the first sentence other places as a career to deliver or receive packages for hezbollah operations in places like turkey, the netherlands, and france. these are not the only cases. you may be aware. current cases going on in thailand and nigeria where hezbollah operators have been captured and will be on trial which is rare and unique. my other favorite stories from the book. as a former deputy assistant

secretary the treasury this assistant -- this story is near and dear mark. they manage to carry out in the philadelphia area, from the philadelphia area and went globally to africa and europe and into beirut. one of the cases involved the sale of counterfeit money. the individual was invited to go to beirut in to meet people. if he passed the test then we can do some real good business here was an counterfeit money, super notes, foreign currency, when everyone. ..

sent to iraq so now i have our attention. hezbollah is passing counterfeit bills we set for the construction so it is to go back and posing as a foot soldier for the philadelphia crying world and i am convinced hezbollah has watched too many episodes of the sopranos because the client and sinker between renting a mcmahon gin and miami and the whole thing. the sources told to go back and look you think we don't know good counterfeit from bad? we do no good counterfeit from

that. he says i will tell you the story. we have a problem. i don't know if you are aware but in february of 2008 somebody assassinated him. the fox was his nickname, the man who never sleeps was his nickname. at least three different times he failed. saudi arabia, france, you can read about it in the book. how did they find him and so hezbollah is doing and after action assessment and one of their assessment is that maybe there is a penetration with the terrorist slash fund. i am not talking for political parties. i'm not talking a slush fund for social welfare orphans and widows. apparently, hezbollah attacks leans to the source hezbollah has years had an ongoing operation or the operatives want to have what they cut and skoal legitimate money around the world. one time we stole $2 million

worth of swedish krona but it didn't go well and got stand to read if you have a solvent you can give us to literally launder the money and take the purple dye out of the bills. the money goes to iran, sits quietly for a while and then this is to quote hezbollah terrorism, hezbollah and terrorism. to understand this is the real deal. he says i know that you are following the money. maybe they follow the money. maybe we didn't. i want to thank all whole bunch of people and do it quickly because we have a treat and i am honored to have fled here to do some comments on the book. but i want to frank -- she couldn't be here. my agent who is here that represents me and jason who made this book readable and thank you very much as an outside editor

did a fantastic job. i published three books now and this isn't a shot at any of the other press. they were lovely but i've never had as fantastic and experience as i have publishing this book at georgetown university press. if anybody out there is thinking about writing a serious book, do it with georgetown university press and i want to thank those that are in particular and everyone from the team up and down the chain it continues to be a pleasure. i've been in and out of government has said, full-time employee, part time employee. i guess that means i can't hold down the job but every time i've left the government i have come back to washington in suit which i consider to be my intellectual home. it is absolutely a remarkable place where we debate and we argue. we did a lot of arguing. and this book in particular is a better product for all of those discussions and debates in the hallways and in the offices and i am a very, very lucky person

to be part of the intellectual community that is the washington institute thank you all for taking the time to join us for this book lunch today. thank you very much. [applause] >> first of all it is a great honor for me to be invited to say a few words in connection with the release of this very important new book. i had an advanced copy over the last several days and i must say that it is a fascinating story written with strikingly vivid prose. it's a book whose intellectual foundations ensure will satisfy the specialists but who's

storytelling skills will definitely appeal to a more general readership. so, matt, congratulations on a wonderful achievement that took many years of hard research and skillful writing had to bring about. matt's book is the first of its kind to focus specifically on hezbollah's worldwide clandestine activities, which are largely criminal and terrorist in nature. one of the services rendered by dysphoric -- this work is the notion that this somehow a distinction between hezbollah's military and political wings. a concept that is claimed by the

various activations, politicians and commentators despite the denials, categorical denials by the senior hezbollah leaders themselves. it's true that the organization provides social services to its constituents. it's true hezbollah practice in areas where it dominates as the state within the jurisdiction, namely whether lebanon what itself is barely a state if at all yet matt accurately and eloquently described the truth of the matter as follows. quote, hezbollah should be judged by the utility of its actions. it cannot be forgiven its criminal, terrorist or militant pursued simply because at the same time it also engages in

political or humanitarian ones. hezbollah's leaders often exist the group doesn't maintain support networks around the world, let alone in carrying out attacks abroad. but as the schemes and that the plots documented here demonstrate, hezbollah can and has mobilized operative us for everything from criminal enterprises to terrorist attacks well beyond lebanon's borders, end of quote. now, and interests over the past three years i'm sorry to say has focused largely on its role in lebanon and the immediate neighborhood. in april of 1983 it blew up the american embassy in beirut, killing and injuring a great many lebanese embassy employees who i'd gotten to know well during a tour of duty at the

embassy that had ended the year before. several american officials were also killed. in october of the same year, hezbollah attacked the u.s. marine corps compound adjacent to the root's airport killing 241 american servicemen. a simultaneous attack targeted french peacekeepers also with deadly results. at the time the u.s. secretary of defense, caspar weinberger created a commission of inquiry headed by the retired out model to investigate the airport bombing and develop the bombing of the recommendations. as an army major, i served on that commission. i must correct one piece of your generous introduction. i was not the author of the

commission report. i wrote a chapter and contributed to several others, but the author of the report was a truly great american. subsequently hezbollah engaged in a campaign of murder and hostage-taking aimed at americans and others in lebanon. a friend of mine, marine colonel richard higgins then serving as the united nations observer in lebanon was one of those was seized. back in 2006i mentioned at a public gathering that i am one of the few people who knows the precise matter of his death and that if i were to describe that, everyone in the room would be second. shortly after that appearance, a

person i knew what develop close contacts with senior hezbollah leaders and tried to persuade me based on what he was being told that the person responsible for many of the outrageous commit to the 1980's was sent a person well known to the party's current leadership including secretary general. that effort to persuade me -- and i presume others -- ended abruptly in february of 2008 when the killing and syria produced the martyr by his close

colleague. no one should have any doubt about the murderous quality of this organization's leadership. indeed i now work for part of the atlantic council named in honor of the most prominent of hezbollah's dictums. that leadership has in my view a central mission to safeguard, normally within lebanon but now on the syrian territory as well the clerical regime in iran. this is the primary purpose of hezbollah's missiles and rockets, to detour an israeli attack on iran and to retaliate against israel shut such an

attack takes place. as i have noted previously, he is not in my view and iranians stooge or employee. he's a true believer although he will yield that is the desire of the supreme leader as i suspect he did when he deployed thousands of the fighters to syriac in an effort to save the family rule, he is i think someone highly regarded by the powers that be in iran. someone who's views are afforded respect and wheat. in the end though he has hijacked a lebanon, and a significant portion of one of the key communities for purposes that are not lebanese.

bye placing a major part of his militia at the disposal of the al-assad regime, he has rejected this association policy of the government in which his party is a keen member and has all but such succeeded from the lebanese state such. hezbollah is assisting of the regime in consolidating an area west of the line running from jordan to turkey. one incorporating in the key cities and the mediterranean seas. one contiguous in part with the hezbollah dominated valley of lebanon. also in my view we are not likely to see a formal redrawing of boundaries.

what we may be witnessing is the emergence of a defacto state from parts of eastern lebanon and western syria. one in which the incompetent family may gradually give way to those who need syria as a logistical bridge to lebanon. obviously syria is now completely dominating the headlines in this country. our purpose today however is to mark the publication of a marvelous new book about hezbollah. i will conclude by noting the decision to deploy the fighters toussuire via carries with it great risk.

caswell's lebanon based determinism and retaliatory capabilities represent important strategic asset for iran. serving the tasatto regime at least in a useful part of syria is of vital and importance to tehran. yet in committing hezbollah to a fight that has -- because of the regime's tactics become disturbingly sectarian in nature at peak iran has risked the stability required to secure that strategic asset in the south of lebanon. that's why it's critical for iran and hezbollah to win outright in syria at least in

part of the country that counts. this is why they are determined to win a military victory regardless of whether the u.s. administration believes that a military victory is to be had by anyone in syria. this is why iran at least for as long as the nuclear issue has the potential of an israeli attack remained outstanding and has no real interest in the facilitating of a political transition object of some of the june a 2012 geneva agreement. so, as we celebrate today the publication of a very significant but the telescope and implications of hezbollah's global reach, let us also

remember that iran and its lebanese militia are all in trying to find the people of syria through iran's strategic objectives in lebanon and in the region. from the point of view of the leader and his colleagues keeping the organization and business whose international deprivations have been so skillfully chronicled and described by matt as an objective of supreme importance. thank you. [applause] >> excellent thank you very much. and again, congratulations to you. i would like to open a question and answer session with i think

the question that is on the mind of about 100 people in the room, which is given everything that we know about the last 40 years of hezbollah's faction and in the relations with iran and syria what does hezbollah do if and when it america strikes syria? >> why don't we use the microphone here. >> first of all, thank you, fred putative and i forgot to thank one tremendously important group of people and that is the washington institute in terms who have slaved for years over this book. a bunch of you are here today which gives me great pleasure so i just want to call out jonathan, stephanie, julia, nicole, a whole bunch more but i couldn't have done it without you. [laughter]

>> let it go. so, hezbollah has multiple but contrary to what i think i don't think that either are a rational at all. i think they are quite rational. we just tend to impose our western sense of nationality on them. we tend to be very risk adverse and they tend to be not so much and rather aggressive. in that even the that there is a strike if the strike is perceived as being and is limited, proceed as being a punishment for the use of chemical weapons, which they are probably not that happy to have their own history suffering significant losses from chemical weapons and this is quite comfortable for them, hezbollah has in fact said that if the strike is limited, then the response would be limited.

but if it's more than the inferno open type of thing there is lots of rhetoric. if there is a strike that is seen as significantly undermined and the continued viability of the regime, i completely agree iran and hezbollah or all and. and i think that they would use some of their key believe that not only includes the ability to bring the rockets into israel and not only northern israel and hezbollah has restocked and resupplied many more rockets and longer-range rockets, the rockets even those that are north of the river and can still go further soften the rockets can go back and 06 but also of course the kind of a global terrorist infrastructure that we have been discussing today that is available to it. the question is on top of the two terrorist operational streams that we all discussed avenging the death by assassinating the current or former senior israeli officials

being part of the shettle war with of the west by targeting the israeli tourists and incurring the cost to israel of what it's doing. now if they already have the two different operations going on they are already trying to do things does it make it that much of a difference with a third reason to do it. at the end of the day the world as a more complicated place to operate today than it was from 9/11. the odds are in their favor. that they wouldn't necessarily succeed the final chapter of the book documents of hezbollah and the i iranian force with the plots that are not fully or

thwarted but failed because they were like the keystone kops of terrorism today. so, it's also worth noting that was hezbollah has the capability of the reason it is a threat it's also not 10 feet tall. at the end of the day hezbollah doesn't need much of an excuse to target israel. if the target syria there will be some targeting syria that they will be limited because of the end of the day has a lot of iran and the regime do not want to invite the air force into this battle. they do not want to unite the west which is not united right now in the decision to do more targeting in the regime. >> thanks. very briefly it is an excellent question obviously. you know, what will hezbollah do? i think to some extent it depends on what is done

naturally. i think that if it is a pinprick operation and a shot against a shot, hezbollah will do exactly what the al-assad regime would do in that case. it will signal its content to the united states of america and triton and syria as if nothing has happened. i think though if i were actually back and non-government and responsible for some of these things as opposed to just talking about them i would plan for the absolute worst. no doubt, as the time draws closer to win the united states is going to be do something kinetic we in syria, there will be a series of the embassy

drawdowns and restrictions and a series of strong warnings for american tourists and business travelers. so i think it is inescapable that we plan for the worst. i am inclined a vote to agree with that today i think the one nothing but netz is able to do, the one thing that he learned from his almost fatal experience in 2006 is to keep your eye on the wall. he's going to take this into account as he gauges how to react to whatever it is the

united states does. his central mission is to maintain the integrity of that strategic deterrence and retaliatory capability in southern lebanon. so whenever he decides to do, she's going to have to wait out the pros and cons of cutting that at risk if he gets caught red handed as he has several times in the past. >> thank you to use chemical to the net for to questions. if you could just wait for the microphone to get to you and identify yourself for our viewing public and then post your question.

>> [inaudible] and reducing the power of the regime so i want to ask both fred and matt what they think about the administration's failure for the weapons that were promised months ago to the syrian opposition and are we at the point we can distinguish the so-called good and bad syrian opposition and what would be the opposition of eight more at this point in conjunction with the parallel to any strike and how hezbollah might react to that. i don't know if senator mccain is onto something here and in the central adjunct to what ever it is the united states does in the way of the military strikes is to get really serious about

supporting of the main street opposition. it's not as if as some critics allege nothing has been done to read the question is of one scope and one size. the united states does have a highly refined understanding of who is and it wishes to support in the ranks of the syrian armed opposition. a highly refined understanding. the question is one of policy quite frankly. there is a fear, an understandable fear that some things supply and could fall into the wrong hands namely into the hands of the jihadist al qaeda elements who are already

armed to the teeth in any event. so do you allow that fear to either stop supplying the main street elements or really restrict the flow. fortunately we didn't have such a fear motivating our policy during world war ii when we were in error dropping into france. a lot of those things found themselves into the way into the wrong hands. so, i think what you are going to see in this week on fold is the administration is going to be questioned very, very closely in the senate and in the house about the to tell the of its strategy toward syria.

and otherwise, supporting the opposition is that it is going to be a key element of this. estimates would be a question of what kind of checks we can have in place. i don't mean to make the time the al qaeda affiliate's and syria go about this and they do it in such a way that some of these individuals and groups have reference to that we do know about can get some of what they need. the cost of not doing that is that by default the jihadists continue to be the best armed, and therefore the best most effective fighting force on the ground on the rebel side and in the up being invited in by the rest of the company simply because they have no other choice. so we do need to find a way there is no way we have some checks and balances we have ways we can do things. we have to work closely with our

allies, some we are not so concerned about what weapons go where, but this has to be a part of the package. ..

where is the recognition of the real delegating organization that assisted? >> so we say that, you know, the threat is combining content and capability. on the intense side hezbollah is all set, and that makes a big difference because they are committed and they are true believers. so given an instruction, they will follow through. but there has been a shift over time having to do with nothing that was the creation of hezbollah where hezbollah started shifting away from international terrorist organization and more toward support activity, logistics', and focused more heavily on its militia. and i get into that in the book in some detail. but what that meant is that the militia of hezbollah became very, very, very good. not just that it is the largest and best armed militia in lebanon, larger than and more

disciplined and the lebanese armed forces. but it is very, very good. so in syria it made a significant difference because they're well trained in these tactics and you have the full-time cadres and if you will allow me, the reservists to have their weapon in the closet and, for turning ever so often. and so they have proven very, very capable, especially in urban street fighting in syria. when it comes to the international terrorist abilities, so part of it is that we have to be successful every time. we only have to be so good. they have had a variation. some people seem to be very, very capable. other people less so. what is more surprising is some people have been very, very capable in some ways in shown excellent operational security and then all the sudden not. there was one case where individuals showed great of

personal security for almost the entire operation, but at one point he did not pay a hotel bill and left and steered toward ever was, 100, $200 hotel bill, and it is not not to cut if it had not been for the fact that this particular low-rent establishment and not pay rent and a long time and did not want to bring it to the attention of law enforcement might have told him that disgusted with the bill in the might and actually found in. very poor operational security. the best example is the hezbollah operative who was arrested in thailand, but the iranian operatives who are arrested just a week and have later who were tracked down because they were hanging a with prostitutes before they went to carry out their deed. and worse, from an operational to -- security perspective allow the trust is to take pictures of the mall hanging out together on there cell phones, which is how we found them at the airport. so on the one hand they're not 10 feet tall and on the other hand, hezbollah has got training

in the types of intelligence, counterintelligence, operational security that make it qualitatively better in some ways in terms of these types of obligations than anyone else out there. and so if hezbollah puts its head that it is going to do something, ultimately something will happen. they are patient. eventually it will at least continue to try and do something so long as kate's the -- iran tells him to continue targeting israeli tourists, that will probably continue to produce some of gun play, some have not because they have worked more than surveillance. reportedly surveillance at the airport in johannesburg and other places. a lot that's going on. >> can i ask the question, this is as much to fred as to you, madam. given that we are now talking every day about redlines and maintaining american commitments

, how is it from the beirut bombing until today that hezbollah has escaped significant american retribution ? this was for you, too. [laughter] >> some time to think. one of the few benefits, and there are not many, to writing a book or this long a. of time, and i must say, again, i had an editor who was pushed when he had to. you are able to go and talk to people and talk to them again and three interview and beg and beg and beg and beg and beg some more for documentation. i was able to collect not so small collection of declassified intelligence reports, american and many, many others. one of the things that comes out time and again from the

declassified u.s. intelligence reports is the fact that there has never been a consequence. and that this consequence has led both iran and hezbollah to believe that terrorism is effective. they have cited over the years the barrick bombings as an example of how this is effective and eventually u.s. forces left and that there was no significant response. this is a former fbi person i can say with confidence that was a tremendous frustration to the fbi in particular over the columbia towers. the in the it to touch the end of the day only had the power to do was what i call and to bring indictments to much, much more detailed indictment and you would normally have was issues are before the statute of limitations ran out, but this has had some serious consequences. why is this the case? had been part of it is because of hezbollah and iran, one of the reasons i see this as being

so effective is that only that it seems to work and only that it is relatively cost-effective. these attacks of also that month money, but it is cost-effective and a sense that it does not incur cost. for hezbollah and iran both. and this gets back to what might be a likely retribution, enduring things that are reasonably deniable, is reasonably deniable. it's important to them. difficult for the world to have a consensus. but the until shows, what it does not show. even if you agree, for example, that hezbollah focus to try to head cyprus. it was not launched from a particular headquarters. can be difficult to get consensus of a grant politically on as well. i feel they feel that buys and some level of protection. [applause] >> i agree with all of that. i would say that to the extent

there have been cases where there may have been cases in the past where some kind of specific retribution may have been exacted, it is the sort of thing that we are not likely to year anything about, either now or ever. and on the strategic level when we are thinking in terms of retribution, i think from the point of view of the united states, we always have to take into account who is really on the line here. hezbollah has an impressive array of weaponry in southern lebanon. that weaponry, quite obviously, it is on the east coast of the united states. we all know where is aimed.

rihanna whose interests and equities are at stake here. so many thought the united states might give to smacking hezbollah where it lives really has to take into account that aspect of things. >> it is not the case that we have not ever done anything. bell directory, for example, south american chapters to the exception of operation double top and director in the southwest asian chapter to the operation and bobby endo wants of others. >> thank you. mike kraft here and then david right over here. who will try to get as many as we can. [inaudible question]

>> the hostage-taking, 1980. he showed more detailed. try to get release of prisoners. the american policy in the middle east. i went again, talking about dealing with hezbollah, a chapter on the potential criminals activity in the united states. great detail. one of the things, the groups such as hezbollah, passed by

congress in 1996 to make it a little bit like supporting terrorist groups. the justice apartment, and in get the europeans to crack down on hezbollah. a little bit on the rationale for not doing this. >> okay. all bond. dave pollak on the right. >> here resolutions. the, and about why the and is this is not retaliating much against hezbollah, the election

of a new marine sentiment. gives it a chance to sometimes retaliation. unafraid the yet made in the process of repeat, i would welcome any, they might have about that. my question is back to syria. he both said that hezbollah is all in. what exactly does that really mean? likely end up in syria. how much more iranian support for hezbollah or iranian pressure on hezbollah to do that. up to one.

and related, of course, to that is what could be done to change that calculus of hezbollah and iran in syria. >> something up front. right there. >> longtime supporter, a friend. to your wife, to your son come into your family. understand the treasury path. truly great american in every sense of the word. we have talked a little bit about what next in syria. and i think the question that many have is in terms of those red lines that have been mentioned, what is there right mind for bring as a tax into the heartland of america? >> what we take those questions. those simple questions. all right.

>> will try. a couple of them were 12-part questions. so on the material support statute we have people in this from a been doing this for a long time in the apartment of justice and. >> guest: it better than i. this has been a hughes tool. it's kind of interesting. most of the cases have not been a show of support cases. and most of the cases that involve hezbollah so deeply involved in criminal activity prosecutors simply opted not to mention hezbollah and the key word terrorism, cigarette smuggling, mortgage fraud, watering down, baby formula tax evasion that they were doing is quicker and easier way to get the conviction. that has changed because it is also seen as exposing the activity. we have many, many different

cases, and in the bucket and a great detail about operation smokescreen, operation bathwater, operation bellbottoms. and did not make up the names, there are wonderful literary tools. there's a lot there to discuss. the rationale, and this is the one area where the book is already out of date, i'm afraid to know because when we went to press the you was still not willing to have a discussion. and i spent the time sleeving of the manuscript going back and forth to europe tried to convince them to do something. i think the rationale comes down to a variety of things can including some of them are concerned about retaliation, some are concerned what the impact. most of them were afraid -- some or just generally uncomfortable with the idea of designating something a terrorist group is a duly elected political party. the one thing there was consensus, concern that if you designated hezbollah, certainly

a few designated all of hezbollah, your influence over domestic lebanese politics in your ability to try and prevent things from getting worse would be mitigated and there were desperate for those channels of communication to remain open. some months of the right after the designation a senior hezbollah official said to the eu but representative in lebanon, there is nothing has a distinction between the military and political wings. you designate the a politician. in the bank's a list of one to talk to you. does europeans critics fear. on the issue of covered coming right after he was elected, let's have some of the chair. we have on our website, appears headed for the institute on my fears that a wild iranian moderates might be domestic in some ways, the histories, the classified u.s. intelligence reports, the history is quite

otherwise. the u.s. intelligence community is assessing each of the last two presidents came in and this was going on the terrorism did not switch one iota. and so there was just part of a larger political. i don't know anybody who can answer outside of classified settings, and maybe even in. in any honest way the question of how many, to what point commensurately. there's a lot of different reporting, some going as high as 10,000. i find out less likely. there are a few thousand certainly. vetting, trained, not the reservists. but they're want to make sure their people at all to protect against what israel's views as an opportunity to do something. they also are having a little hard time politically unknown and have the feel the need to protect something as been struck

and more than one occasion, a hezbollah stronghold. when i mean is that hezbollah has put its reputation on line. resistance against israel is critical to them for the assad regime to win. i think it the end of the then a matter what happens hezbollah loses. if the assad regime comes out and victorious, which i find impossible, hezbollah will still be deeply despised by the majority of the muslim and arab world's for many, many years. this will not be some forgotten. in the more likely event that things continue as they are, horribly for some time and eventually outside of killed or leaves or escapes', what have you, hezbollah does not win its reputation. it is further shot down. at home and slept on its standing is severely, severely undermined. hezbollah as a massive

ideological crisis right now because the islamic resistance is resisting fellow muslims. >> mike, many things to say about me. i think that it's quite clear. both declassified fbi reports i include in the book, as fred have said, we'll always done a prudent thing which is planned. this planning is going on right now, to be sure. my concern is this, for one thing that was consistent, and not everything was, but the one thing that was consistent in the intel was such reports over many years is the idea that so long as it is not seen by hezbollah that we, the united states, directed doing things to undermine their true, core interest that there would not attack us directly. there would not want to pick a fight within 80-pound gorilla had put their cash cow and other types of logistics' terrible to do it for all the things we

discussed at risk. but hezbollah and others for a long time have said that we are behind this happening in syria and the special tribunal for love and on. i think that they see that we are behind a lot of was going on. i don't think hezbollah it wants to pick a fight with us, but it has that potential capability out there. even the charlotte cigarette smuggling seller, pictures of them out in the carolinas shooting with fully automatic weapons or very sophisticated sniper rifles. and in the chart we had a least one case, one of the only cases i know of a hezbollah car used across the border with -- from mexico, possibly one of the most dangerous to be in the country. some so the fbi arrested him on the first opportunity just to get them off the street. it went before the judge saying you have to deny bail.

why, we are afraid he is trying to assassinate people that he thinks have turned against. the fbi testified, not in open session, but a question for the record after the case of years ago that fbi sees hezbollah conducting surveillance in this country. predominantly used to recruit, that does mean that hezbollah has that potential planning. frankly, if you never, ever, ever under any circumstance intended to use it there is probably a better way to train your future, you know, check forger and tax evader and white-collar crime guy who will raise money for hezbollah your mortgage fraud that having him surveil cover building. >> on the question of how many fighters are in lebanon, i see no truly reliable estimates, but have heard john mccain on one of the summer shows use the number

5,000, which i presume he gets from somewhere. we were also have to add to that iranian provided iraqi militiamen who are inside syria now in considerable numbers. how to change the calculus of these characters? add think, first, it is important to understand what the carcasses. that is that in the the military victory can be at, either in syria at large or in a part of syria that really counts for iran and hezbollah. otherwise, otherwise the risks to hezbollah and their risk to the iranian enterprise in lebanon is so great that to

commit. ♪ forces to syria for anything less is just nonsense. so we need to understand that despite our president's assurance that there is no such thing as a military victory by anyone in syria, these folks don't agree with it and in that sense they are all and. howdy chased the car collection? i think this is one of the things the president, secretary of defense, chairman of the joint chiefs have to take into account now as they devise an operation that will be presumably authorized by u.s. congress. if that operation is significant enough, if at a minimal, at a minimum bid destroys or significantly gary the ability

of the assad regime to bring mass terror to a syrian populations, this could change the iranian hezbollah calculation and they could come to the conclusion that may be a military victory is not possible here. in a diplomatic sense, and i know this is kind of a hail mary pass, if there were in agreement between c-span2 and all of the rest of us, and nuclear issue, i think iran would pay a lot more attention to the prohibitively costly size of the investment it is making in syria. abcaeight? if the prospect of an israeli attack or an israeli attack joined by the united states or

whenever, if that goes away, i think it is inevitable that there would be a recalculation of some kind on the part of iran >> try to figure out how we translate hell mary pass into arabic, but we will work on that. one sense -- one sentence questions because then we have to close. right here please. >> a question with regard to that he nation and the muslim wing, the question is. [inaudible question] [inaudible question]

>> okay. the designation, is it serious, and how do we get. ♪ without and powering al qaeda? so, really, really intend to. they undermined their own a penchant -- potential to do that by designating as part of the group. but actually, there's not a great history of that eu fleet seizing a whole lot of money under any of its programs. the most important thing is this a shot across the bout and the getting there is some type of cost to hezbollah for conducting terrorist operations within the european union. hezbollah lobbied long and hard against this. they are very upset about it. there are tangible benefits. most importantly in all my travels back and forth, both within -- with eu officials and members state officials it became very clear that there

were a small number of european countries and germans in particular it were already giving funding. and there were other saying, look, we can't because this is not a designated terrorist group, and so we don't have the authority. this gives them the authority. an opportunity to be able to go and say, look, now you have this authority. the european union has said that this is happening. you need to do stuff. the most important things of what happened have been understated. john brennan went to ireland. the most important thing is that they start opening of investigations, and that is absolutely case. israelis have said they intend to share a lot more information. and that actually creates the dynamic. you cannot sit on the information. if someone gave its you and you did not do anything, that's a problem. there are a lot of waste, how

the eu designation can be used to actually make a big difference. look, what did i say? pen, i don't see these as if then statements. it is not the case that we punish and degrade the capability the beneficiary is necessarily al qaeda. there are elements within the opposition who we can and should work with. part of the response to all of this has to be providing them the tools that they need to get the job done. one of the part-time government employee gigs i did was as a counter-terrorism guys are for the state department relating to israeli-palestinian peace process and bring vetted people into jordan and training them. that was tremendously successful.

not telling you anything that is not public and on paper. this is now being done in a smaller scale of some of the syrians. there is what to do because right now you are right there are bad guys in every side of this equation. that does not need to be the case moving forward. there are good guys that we can work with in the rebel opposition. meanwhile, we cannot allow that assad regime to get away with casting his own people and allow hezbollah to get away with crossing borders in bringing devastation to the syrian people in dragging that back, across the border to love not. >> final word. >> final couple of words. i would just send one of the -- one of the real victories of the assad regime in the information war it has been waging since march 2011, since all of this started is its ability to get across the idea that the only alternative